Isaiah 34; Isaiah 35; Isaiah 36; Colossians 2

1 Come close, you nations, and listen. Pay attention, you people. The earth, everyone in it, the world, and everything on it will listen.

2 The LORD is angry with all the nations. He is furious with all their armies. He has claimed them for destruction. He has handed them over to be slaughtered.

3 Their dead bodies will be thrown out. A stench will rise from their corpses. Mountains will be red with their blood.

4 All the stars in the sky will rot. The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll. The stars will fall like leaves from a grapevine, like green figs from a fig tree.

5 When my sword is covered [with blood] in the heavens, it will fall on Edom and on the people I've claimed for destruction.

6 The LORD's sword is covered with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of rams' kidneys. The LORD will receive a sacrifice in Bozrah, a huge slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 Wild oxen will be killed with them, young bulls along with rams. Their land will be drenched with blood. Their dust will be covered with fat.

8 The LORD will have a day of vengeance, a year of revenge in defense of Zion.

9 Edom's streams will be turned to tar. Its soil will be turned to burning sulfur. Its land will become blazing tar.

10 They will not be extinguished day or night, and smoke will always go up from them. Edom will lie in ruins for generations. No one will ever travel through it.

11 Pelicans and herons will take possession of the land. Owls and crows will live there. He will stretch the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of destruction over it.

12 There are no nobles to rule a kingdom. All of its princes have disappeared.

13 Its palaces are covered with thorns. Its fortresses have nettles and thistles. It will become a home for jackals and a place for ostriches.

14 Hyenas will meet with jackals. Male goats will call to their mates. Screech owls will rest there and find a resting place for themselves.

15 Owls will make their nests there, lay eggs, and hatch them. They will gather their young in the shadow of [their wings]. Vultures also will gather there, each one with its mate.

16 Search the LORD's book, and read it. Not one of these animals will be missing. Not one will lack a mate, because the LORD has commanded it, and his Spirit will gather them together.

17 He is the one who throws dice for them, and his hand divides up [the land] for them with a measuring line. They will possess it permanently and live there for generations.

1 The desert and the dry land will be glad, and the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.

2 Like a lily the land will blossom. It will rejoice and sing with joy. It will have the glory of Lebanon, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. Everyone will see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.

3 Strengthen limp hands. Steady weak knees.

4 Tell those who are terrified, "Be brave; don't be afraid. Your God will come with vengeance, with divine revenge. He will come and rescue you."

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unplugged.

6 Then those who are lame will leap like deer, and those who cannot speak will shout for joy. Water will gush out into the desert, and streams will gush out into the wilderness.

7 Then the hot sand will become a pool, and dry ground will have springs. Grass will become cattails and rushes in the home of jackals.

8 A highway will be there, a roadway. It will be called the Holy Road. Sinners won't travel on it. It will be for those who walk on it. Godless fools won't wander [onto it].

9 Lions won't be there. Wild animals won't go on it. They won't be found there. But the people reclaimed [by the LORD] will walk [on it].

10 The people ransomed by the LORD will return. They will come to Zion singing with joy. Everlasting happiness will be on their heads [as a crown]. They will be glad and joyful. They will have no sorrow or grief.

1 In Hezekiah's fourteenth year as king, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

2 Then the king of Assyria sent his field commander with a large army from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. He stood at the channel for the Upper Pool on the road to Laundryman's Field.

3 Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was the son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went out to the field commander.

4 He said to them, "Tell Hezekiah, 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What makes you so confident?

5 You give useless advice about getting ready for war. Whom, then, do you trust for support in your rebellion against me?

6 Look! When you trust Egypt, you're trusting a broken stick for a staff. If you lean on it, it stabs your hand and goes through it. This is what Pharaoh (the king of Egypt) is like for everyone who trusts him.

7 Suppose you tell me, "We're trusting the LORD our God." He's the god whose places of worship and altars Hezekiah got rid of. Hezekiah told Judah and Jerusalem, "Worship at this altar."'

8 "Now, make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I'll give you 2,000 horses if you can put riders on them.

9 How can you defeat my master's lowest-ranking officers when you trust Egypt for chariots and horses?

10 "Have I come to destroy this country without the LORD on my side? The LORD said to me, 'Attack this country, and destroy it.'"

11 Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the field commander, "Speak to us in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don't speak to us in the Judean language as long as there are people on the wall listening."

12 But the field commander asked, "Did my master send me to tell these things only to you and your master? Didn't he send me to the men sitting on the wall who will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine with you?"

13 Then the field commander stood and shouted loudly in the Judean language, "Listen to the great king, the king of Assyria.

14 This is what the king says: Don't let Hezekiah deceive you. He can't rescue you.

15 Don't let Hezekiah get you to trust the LORD by saying, 'The LORD will certainly rescue us, and this city will not be put under the control of the king of Assyria.'

16 Don't listen to Hezekiah, because this is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me! Come out, and give yourselves up to me! Everyone will eat from his own grapevine and fig tree and drink from his own cistern.

17 Then I will come and take you away to a country like your own. It's a country with grain and new wine, a country with bread and vineyards.

18 Don't let Hezekiah mislead you by saying to you, 'The LORD will rescue us.' Did any of the gods of the nations rescue their countries from the king of Assyria?

19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they rescue Samaria from my control?

20 Did the gods of these countries rescue them from my control? Could the LORD then rescue Jerusalem from my control?"

21 They were silent and didn't say anything to him because the king commanded them not to answer him.

22 Then Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace and was son of Hilkiah, Shebna the scribe, and Joah, who was the royal historian and the son of Asaph, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn in grief. They told him the message from the field commander.

1 I want you to know how hard I work for you, for the people of Laodicea, and for people I have never met.

2 Because they are united in love, I work so that they may be encouraged by all the riches that come from a complete understanding of Christ. He is the mystery of God.

3 God has hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ.

4 I say this so that no one will mislead you with arguments that merely sound good.

5 Although I'm absent from you physically, I'm with you in spirit. I'm happy to see how orderly you are and how firm your faith in Christ is.

6 You received Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live as Christ's people.

7 Sink your roots in him and build on him. Be strengthened by the faith that you were taught, and overflow with thanksgiving.

8 Be careful not to let anyone rob you [of this faith] through a shallow and misleading philosophy. Such a person follows human traditions and the world's way of doing things rather than following Christ.

9 All of God lives in Christ's body,

10 and God has made you complete in Christ. Christ is in charge of every ruler and authority.

11 In him you were also circumcised. It was not a circumcision performed by human hands. But it was a removal of the corrupt nature in the circumcision performed by Christ.

12 This happened when you were placed in the tomb with Christ through baptism. In baptism you were also brought back to life with Christ through faith in the power of God, who brought him back to life.

13 You were once dead because of your failures and your uncircumcised corrupt nature. But God made you alive with Christ when he forgave all our failures.

14 He did this by erasing the charges that were brought against us by the written laws God had established. He took the charges away by nailing them to the cross.

15 He stripped the rulers and authorities [of their power] and made a public spectacle of them as he celebrated his victory in Christ.

16 Therefore, let no one judge you because of what you eat or drink or about the observance of annual holy days, New Moon Festivals, or weekly worship days.

17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the body [that casts the shadow] belongs to Christ.

18 Let no one who delights in [false] humility and the worship of angels tell you that you don't deserve a prize. Such a person, whose sinful mind fills him with arrogance, gives endless details of the visions he has seen.

19 He doesn't hold on to [Christ,] the head. Christ makes the whole body grow as God wants it to, through support and unity given by the joints and ligaments.

20 If you have died with Christ to the world's way of doing things, why do you let others tell you how to live? It's as though you were still under the world's influence.

21 People will tell you, "Don't handle this! Don't taste or touch that!"

22 All of these things deal with objects that are only used up anyway.

23 These things look like wisdom with their self-imposed worship, [false] humility, and harsh treatment of the body. But they have no value for holding back the constant desires of your corrupt nature.